Antony Sher
Antony Sher (1949–2021) was a leading actor known for his stage performances, particularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was also a highly respected author and artist.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Sher came to London in 1968, and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy. Much of his career was with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was an Associate Artist. He played Richard III, Macbeth, Leontes, Prospero, Shylock, Iago and Falstaff, as well as the leading roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, Tamburlaine the Great, The Roman Actor, Tom Stoppard's Travesties, Peter Flannery's Singer, Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye, and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
At the National Theatre he played the title roles in Primo (his own adaptation of Primo Levi's If This is a Man), Pam Gems's Stanley, Brecht's Arturo Ui, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (a co-production with the Market Theatre, Johannesburg), as well as Astrov in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Jacob in Nicholas Wright's Travelling Light. In the West End, his roles included Arnold in Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, Muhammed in Mike Leigh's Goose-pimples, and Gellburg in Arthur Miller's Broken Glass. He played Freud in Terry Johnson's Hysteria at Bath's Theatre Royal and Hampstead Theatre.
Film and television appearances included Mrs Brown, Alive and Kicking, The History Man, Macbeth and J.G. Ballard's Home.
Following his debut as a writer with Year of the King (1985), an account of playing Richard III, he wrote four novels – Middlepost, Indoor Boy, Cheap Lives and The Feast – as well as other theatre journals, Woza Shakespeare! (co-written with his partner, the director Gregory Doran, who later became his husband) and Primo Time. His autobiography Beside Myself was published in 2001. His plays include I.D. (premiered at the Almeida Theatre, 2003) and The Giant (premiered at Hampstead Theatre, 2007).
He published a book of his paintings and drawings, Characters (1989), and held exhibitions of his work at the National Theatre, the London Jewish Cultural Centre, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and the Herbert Gallery in Coventry.
Among numerous awards, he won the Olivier Best Actor Award on two occasions (Richard III/Torch Song Trilogy and Stanley), the Evening Standard Best Actor Award (Richard III), and the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Film Award (for Disraeli in Mrs Brown). On Broadway, he won Best Solo Performer in both the Outer Critics' Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Primo. He held honorary Doctorates of Letters from the universities of Liverpool, Exeter, Warwick, and Cape Town. In 2000 he was knighted for his services to acting and writing.
Photograph of Antony Sher © Paul Stuart Photography Ltd
Beside Myself
An Actor's Life
A remarkably candid autobiography, utterly involving and often startlingly revelatory - an inspiration to young actors and a treat for seasoned theatregoers.
- Paperback
£12.99£10.39There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.Ebook£12.99£10.39The Giant
By Antony SherA powerful, witty and moving play exploring the dark interplay between sexuality and creativity.
- Paperback
£8.99£7.19There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.
I.D.
By Antony SherAn enthralling drama about the man who killed Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of South African apartheid.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99
Primo Time
By Antony SherAntony Sher's enthralling account of the struggle – and the triumph – of bringing Primo Levi's Auschwitz memoir to the stage.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.
Year of the Fat Knight (hardback edition)
The Falstaff Diaries
By Antony SherAntony Sher’s fascinating, enlightening account – richly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches – of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare’s best-known and most popular characters.
- Hardback
£10.99£8.79
Year of the Fat Knight
The Falstaff Diaries
By Antony SherAntony Sher’s fascinating, enlightening account – richly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches – of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare’s best-known and most popular characters.
- Ebook
£10.99£8.79
Year of the King
By Antony SherA classic of theatre writing, a unique insight into the creation of a landmark Shakespearian performance.
- Paperback
£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£14.99£11.99Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries
By Antony SherAntony Sher's account of researching, rehearsing and performing one of Shakespeare's greatest roles, Lear, in the 2016 Royal Shakespeare Company production. Winner of the 2019 Theatre Book Prize.
- Hardback
£16.99£13.59There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.Ebook£16.99£13.59
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